Thomas Lynn Youman And Osawatomie
Thomas Lynn Youman is an unsung Osawatomie hero who was a pioneer in Kansas’s telecommunications industry. Youman owned the Osawatomie Telephone Company and was a stockholder in the Parker Telephone Company in Parker, Kansas. Youman was an astute business owner and was influential in Kansas’s early communications industry. Telephony: The American
Telephone Journal, Volume 79, published in 1920, reported, “Thomas Lynn Youman, president of the Kansas Telephone Association, graduated from themercantile business into telephone construction, building the exchange in
in Osawatomie, Kans. in 1899. He is owner of the Osawatomie Telephone Co.
having exchanges at Osawatomie and Beagle, Kans. building the latter in
1906, and a stockholder in the Parker Telephone Co. at Parker, Kans. When
the exchange at Osawatomie was put into service, it had 76 telephones
connected and now the company serves 800 subscribers. It has 3,600 feet of
50 to 400 pair cable underground.”
Youman was one of the founders of the Kansas Telephone Association, and was its first president. Telephony further stated in 1920 of Youmans, “Being very active and having the faculty of making friends easily, it is only natural that ‘T.L’ would have many interests and be connected with a number of organizations. In 1911 Mr. Youmans, F.B. MacKinnon and nine others organized the state association, Mr. Youman being made president and Mr. MacKinnon secretary. “ Youman was active in telecommunications organizations on the national level and Telephony reported “Mr. Youman has continued as president, and has also taken an interest in the national organization.“
Youman was as a consummate professional, and a leader who was a team builder in his business dealings and in Osawatomie. His business interests were disparate, and if he did not have the expertise to operate a business he took an interest in, he recruited experts to work with him on his team of business partners and employees. “Not being a detail man in the ordinary sense of the word, he naturally has interest in several different businesses, such as oil, gas and farming. He prefers to turn the handling of details over to someone else, but when necessary can work them out. His natural preference is to deal with the general questions involved-and he goes into them very thoroughly.”
Youman was also a community leader in Osawatomie, and Telephony reported,
“For seven years prior to entering the mercantile business and has always been active in local affairs. He was an alderman for eight years, and has been president of the Retail Merchants Association, is a member the Community Club, and a worker for the John Brown Memorial Park.”
Thomas Lyle Youman worked to build up Osawatomie’s economic and cultural life and helped to develop telephone service in Osawatomie and Kansas during the early years of telecommunications. We have the community we have today because of the efforts of business owners and civic leaders like Thomas Lyle Youman.
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